"I think we got the message across as to how the American people feel" about French and German opposition to the US-led war on Iraq, Delay told reporters.

Delay refrained for the first time in several weeks from anti-French rhetoric, prompted by France's leadership in international opposition to the war.

"The president is involved in rebuilding Iraq," he said. "We need to follow his lead on that."

The House voted by a show of hands last Thursday in favor of a measure to exclude France, Germany, Russia and Syria from reconstruction projects in Iraq.

The measure was an amendment to a supplemental budget totalling nearly 80 billion dollars to finance the war and initial reconstruction costs.

Delay's change in tone apparently reflected a White House desire not to further antagonize allies in Europe and Russia as attention shifts to post-war Iraq, where Washington does not want to bear reconstruction costs alone with its wartime coalition partners.

The Bush administration managed to head off a Senate vote on a measure similar to last week's House action.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned in a letter to House speaker Dennis Hastert that such legislation "would force the United States to pay a disproportionate share of costs associated with Iraqi relief and reconstruction" and would harm the Baghdad's post-war economic and political interests.

SPACE.WIRE